commercial

Enlarge / An artist’s view of the Starliner spacecraft en route to the International Space Station. (credit: Boeing) One of the biggest rivalries in the modern aerospace industry is between Boeing and SpaceX. Despite their radically different cultures, the aerospace giant and the smaller upstart compete for many different kinds of contracts, and perhaps nowhere […]

Crate.io has introduced a commercial Machine Data Platform, along with a new version of its open source SQL database for the Internet of Things and machine data. The company also announced an US$11 M Series A funding round. The Machine Data Platform is Crate.io’s first major commercial venture following last year’s initial steps toward selling […]

Enlarge / The first Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences Corp. flew to the International Space Station in 2013. (credit: NASA) It has generally been assumed that NASA will save money by spurring the development of services by US companies to supply the International Space Station, but such conclusions have largely been based […]

Enlarge / Waymo is using a fleet of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to develop its self-driving technology. (credit: Waymo) Real driverless cars could come to the Phoenix area this year, according to a Monday report from The Information’s Amir Efrati. Two anonymous sources have told Efrati that Google’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, is preparing to launch “a commercial ride-sharing service powered […]

San Francisco in January could become the first U.S. city to adopt open source software to run its voting machines. City officials last month authorized consulting group Slalom to prepare a report on the benefits and challenges involved in using an open source voting machine platform. The city voted to pay Slalom $150,000 for its […]

The government's mission to put the UK at the forefront of commercial spaceflight has been given a big boost after plans were announced to build the world's first private space research centre in Bedfordshire. The &pound;120 million Blue Abyss facili…

Zunum Aero, a startup backed by Boeing and JetBlue, on Wednesday announced that it was developing regional hybrid-electric aircraft with backing from Boeing’s HorizonX innovation cell and JetBlue Technology Ventures. The planes, which will have 10 to 50 seats, are scheduled for launch in the early 2020s. With its regional aircraft, Zunum aims to democratize […]

Gas is the biggest cost for airlines. The easiest way to reduce these costs? Don’t use gas at all. That was the pitch from Wright Electric, a startup building an commercial passenger plane that runs on batteries and can handle flights under 300 miles. These short-haul trips make up 30 percent of all flights and […]

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration put new rules into effect today regulating the commercial use of small, unmanned aircraft systems, or drones. The rules apply to drones that weigh up to 55 pounds and that are being used for business purposes, whether that’s scientific research, education, media, or inspection and surveying of land, traffic, prisons, […]